An Oxfam Journal

Working in Gender & Development book series

The WiGaD series brings together themed selections of the best articles from the journal Gender & Development, and other Oxfam publications repackaged in book form to reach a wide audience of development practitioners and policy makers, and students and academics.

Titles in this series present the theory and practice of gender-oriented development in a way that records experience, describes good practice, and shares information about resources. As such, they contribute to and review current thinking on the gender dimensions of particular development and relief issues.

Gender, Faith, and Development

Edited by Emma Tomalin

Faith-based organizations have long been involved in charitable and development activities. However, the emerging openness to thinking about and engaging with religion in development raises some important questions. Does religious engagement in development policy and practice risk harming already fragile gender relations? What are the challenges and opportunities in negotiating the relationships between religion, gender, and development?

Gender, Faith, and Development presents ten chapters which explore in different ways the relationships between religion, gender, and development. Subjects covered include attitudes towards sexual behaviour in areas with a high prevalence of HIV and AIDS; household disputes over the control of export crop income in Kenya; constraints on women’s time among tourist lodge owners in Nepal; the difficulties of introducing Western models of gender equity to those in Muslim societies who see feminism as a threat; and changes in abortion legislation in Latin American countries.

This book is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students, lecturers, and researchers working in development studies, gender studies, political science, sociology, and religious studies. It will also be of interest to development policy makers and practitioners, voluntary sector workers, and social movement activists.

Gender and the Economic Crisis
Edited by Ruth Pearson and Caroline Sweetman

The current global economic crisis is expected to lead to millions more people being pushed into extreme poverty. The effects are profoundly different for women and men, and the existing gender inequalities and power imbalances mean that additional problems are falling disproportionately on those who are already structurally disempowered and marginalised.

Contributors to this book come from a range of international perspectives and begin to map the impact on women and men and their families in different contexts, and suggest policy and practice changes. Authors include key figures in the research field as well as policymakers and development practitioners, who analyse, with first-hand experience, the initial impacts of the economic crisis in South and East Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.

Climate Change and Gender Justice
Edited by Geraldine Terry

Climate Change and Gender Justice considers how gender issues shape vulnerability to the effects of climate change, and addresses some of the gender dimensions of adapting to, and mitigating, climate change.

The case studies it contains are drawn from several regions. They illustrate how gendered vulnerability varies across contexts, and describe practical initiatives to reduce vulnerability, with an emphasis on promoting gender-justice in and through adaptation efforts. Examples of mitigation initiatives in developing countries, such as carbon sequestration and sustainable energy projects, are also examined through a gender lens. Contributors discuss how gender-equality objectives should be integrated into international climate negotiations and agreements, and how poor women have become empowered to express their adaptation needs.

This diverse and stimulating collection raises a question: should feminists and gender advocates focus on working within current, narrowly-defined, official policy approaches, or is it necessary to reconfigure ‘sustainable development’ with gender justice as a core feature?

HIV and AIDS
Edited by Alice Welbourn and Joanna Hoare

This book takes a look at the key challenges of HIV and AIDS from a gender perspective, and describes positive responses in areas of the world as diverse as Cambodia, South Africa, the UK, and Papua New Guinea.

The impacts of HIV on women and men across the world are devastating and wide-ranging. Girls may have to drop out of school to look after sick relatives, boys to earn money. The death of working-age adults can mean that surviving family members struggle to get by, with grandparents shouldering the burden of looking after orphaned grandchildren, often in dire poverty. Young women may have to resort to sex work, and other risky survival strategies to support themselves and their families. Young men are growing up with ideas about masculinity that include violence and the sexual domination of women, and would be ostracised by peers if they acted otherwise, contributing to the spread of HIV.

The contributors analyse these contexts, exploring the links between HIV, AIDS, gender inequality, and poverty. They present accounts of successful interventions, recording experience, describing good practice, and sharing information about resources. This book is essential reading for development practitioners and policy makers involved in responding to the HIV and AIDS crisis.

Gender-based Violence
Edited by Geraldine Terry, and Joanna Hoare

This book brings together some of the most interesting and innovative work being done to tackle gender-based violence in various sectors, world regions, and socio-political contexts. Articles cover a wide range of manifestations of gender-based violence, including femicide, or the murder of women because they are women, domestic and sexual violence, female genital mutilation or cutting, the sexual exploitation of girls at school, and trafficking for prostitution.

The case studies are drawn from South and East Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Central America, and a detailed list of resources completes the volume. This collection of articles will be useful to development and humanitarian practitioners, policy makers, and academics, including both gender specialists and non-gender specialists alike.